Bank robber sentenced to 12 years in two city holdups

A 50-year-old man who threatened to shoot patrons and tellers while robbing two Baltimore banks within a block of each other near Johns Hopkins Hospital was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison.

George Jordan, of Baltimore, admitted in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to the holdups -- in February and March 2009 that targeted bank branches on East Monument Street.

The suspect, George Jordan of Baltimore, pleaded guilty to the crimes in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. He has been convicted twice before on drug charges and another robbery.

Authorities said that on Feb. 18, 2009, Jordan, wearing a black hooded sweat shirt, robbed the Provident Bank in the 2100 block of East Monument St. by handing a teller a crumpled note under the glass. The note demanded money and prosecutors said he warned the teller, "I will shoot you." Prosecutors said he stole $1,042 stuffed into a duffel bag.

On March 5, 2009, prosecutors said Jordan held up a Wachovia Bank branch a block away, in the 2000 block of East Monument St. Authorities said that he handed a teller a note threatening to open fire. It read: "Give me the money. No dye packs or I will shoot everyone in here." He escaped with $1,167, which he again put into a duffel bag.

Jordan was arrested seven days after the latest holdup when a Baltimore police officer recognized him from surveillance photos. He was standing in front of a rowhouse house in the 900 block of North Chester St., a block from the banks that had been robbed.

Authorities said the suspect never displayed a weapon.

Jordan's plea agreement contains portions of his interview with police, in which he describes robbing the institutions. In reference to the Wachovia Bank, he wrote: "Well, I threw the note out stating that I wanted all the teller's money and if she didn't give it to me, I was gonna shoot everyone in this ... in there, including myself."

He said that at first the teller hesitated, "Like I guess she was saying I don't have .. you know, I don't have no money but her drawer was open and I kept pointing to it. ... So finally she decided, she started getting all the moose money and she gave it to me. I put it in my bag and I left."

But prosecutors said that Jordan told detectives "that he was sorry for putting the tellers in a threatening situation. It was not his intention to hurt anyone, and that he only did it for the money."